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Saturday, September 26, 2009

The other night I really felt like cooking, but didn't know when Jon would be getting home. I went in search of an idea for a dinner that could wait, like a casserole, and started by asking the girls on a cooking board I frequent.

I loved this suggestion blogged about on Cooking This and That. I looked at the original recipe, a Giada recipe for Baked Orzo with Fontina and Peas, on the Food Network web site, and after reading it decided to use it as inspiration but change a few ingredients and add others to match our tastes. The original recipe sounded great, but I wanted to turn it into a savory main course. My version is below.

Ingredients

4 cups chicken broth

1 pound orzo pasta

Chorizo; I used 2 links, each was about 6 inches long.

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

8 ounces mushrooms, chopped

1 cup white wine, I used a dry Chardonnay

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 c shredded cheeses - I used a mix of mozzarella, Parmesan, and asiago

More Parmesan cheese, for the topping, about 1/4 c

6 oz fresh spinach, roughly chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a 9 by 13-inch baking dish.

Bring the chicken broth to a boil over medium-high heat in a medium saucepan. Add the orzo and cook until almost tender, about 7 minutes. Pour the orzo and the broth into a large bowl. Set aside.

Bake uncovered until golden, about 25 minutes. I turned on the broiler for the last minute or two.

These flavors all worked perfectly together. This dish was creamy and comforting, with just a touch of heat from the chorizo. And it served almost 10... we ate it 3 times, my mom had lunch, and my parents had dinner the next night!

I would love to make a large batch of this for a party. I would prepare everything up until before I added the cream. The cream could be stirred in before baking.

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